Healthcare prices are rising within the U.S. In 2023, the typical premium for household protection was almost $24,000 per 12 months, a 47% improve from 2013, in keeping with KFF.
Sounder Advantages goals to deal with this drawback. The corporate launched final week with $7.5 million in funding and was constructed at Redesign Well being, an innovation platform.
The Boise, Idaho-based firm targets employers with lower than 1,000 workers. It pairs AI-driven insights with strategic advantages advisory companies to assist employers design their well being profit plans. The corporate helps employers create a three-year profit roadmap and helps them in transitioning to level-funded and self-funded plans (which regularly present extra financial savings). It additionally presents help for human sources groups year-round.
Leveraging worker well being information, Sounder Advantages additionally identifies when workers have a specific well being want, like most cancers help, after which directs them to the answer they want, like most cancers care firm Jasper Well being. For every specialty, Sounder Advantages selects one or two corporations to contract with and offers Sounder’s clients entry to these options.
“We wish to have the ability to establish that member on the time that they’ve a problem as a result of that’s after they’re most receptive to intervention,” stated Brian Ancell, CEO and co-founder of Sounder Advantages, in an interview. “By connecting with them at the moment, we get them straight right into a program that advantages their wants. In fact, it’s all the time the members in cost. The member will get to determine. It’s their expertise. We’re merely making it easier and simpler for them to have the very best expertise.”
Sounder Advantages receives income for its companies on a per-member-per-month foundation. It’s licensed to function in all 50 states. Whereas it formally launched final week, the corporate had already been available in the market testing its product for about 90 days, Ancell stated.
There are a number of different corporations that help employers with their well being advantages, corresponding to Quantum Well being and Accolade. Nevertheless, many corporations within the area are primarily targeted on bigger employers. Whereas Ancell didn’t title these corporations as opponents, he stated Sounder Advantages differentiates itself from others within the area by serving small and mid-sized employers.
“Everybody needs to focus on the large corporations and assist them … however these mid-sized corporations should not getting that focus, and for an worker that works for an below 1,000-life firm, their typical deductible is 65% greater than for a big firm. So taking that $24,000 [family premium], it’s not even shopping for that a lot protection for folk in these below 1,000-life corporations. We see that as a big unmet want in that market.”
Sounder Advantages has $7.5 million in seed funding in partnership with Redesign Well being. Ancell stated the corporate plans to make use of the funding for 3 foremost areas: constructing out its government management group and advisory group, investing in its know-how and figuring out new companions (together with well being tech options, care navigators, care suppliers and threat administration corporations).
In the end, Sounder Advantages goals to offer mid-sized employers “the experience like they’d have at a Fortune 50 firm,” Ancell stated.
Photograph: Nuthawut Somsuk, Getty Photographs
